liuchli



(No Model.) Shets-Sheet 1. H. LAUGH-LI.

DIAL FOR SPEED MEASURES.

No. 333,641. I Patented Jan. 5, 1886.

N. PETERS. Phnkrhlhugmpher, wasmn mn, n c.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. H. LAUCHLI.

DIAL FOR SPEED MEASURES.

No. 333,641. Patented Jan. 5, 1886.

N PETERS. Phmn-Lilm her. wuhin mn. D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRI LAUCHLI, OF ST. IMIEB, SIVITZERLAND.

DIAL FOR SPEED-MEASURES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 333,641, dated January 5, 1856.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I,HENRI LiiUOHLLacitizen of the Republic of Switzerland, residing at St. Imier, canton of Berne, in the Republic of Switzerland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vatch-Dialsoi which the following is a description in such full, clear, exact, and concise terms as to enable any one skilled in the art to which my invention appertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked there- My invention consists of new and useful improvements in watch-dials and their combination with stop mechanism and second-hand of a watch.

Its object is to furnish a device for conveniently ascertaining the speed at which railroadtrains or other objects are moving.

The manner and means of accomplishing this result will be hereinafter indicated, and the features of novelty in my invention will be designated in the claims concluding this specification.

Figures I and III of the drawings illustrate an ordinary stop-watch and dial with my invention applied thereto, and Fig. II a watchdial constructed according to my invention, without such other adjuncts as are illustrated in Figs. I and III.

Referring to Fig. II, it will be observed that, beginning at a given point, e, on the great circle of a watch-dial, b, said circle is divided into segments of unequal and increasing lengththat is to say, each succeeding segment is longer than the segment next preceding it. Opposite these divisions on the circle are placed figures, as 75, 70, 65, 820. These figures are placed at proper intervals about the circle to indicate the number of units of distance the body is traveling in a given space of time, as will be hereinafter described.

For the purpose of simplifying the description and illustration of this invention, we will suppose that the large hands 0 occupy exactly one minute in making a complete revolution, as in timing-watches or stop-watches of ordinary construction, and that the dials are designed to indicate the number of miles an object-such as a railroad-train-is traveling, moving at a uniform speed per hour.

Any other units of time or space may be substituted for miles or hours without affect,- ing the purpose orprinciple of the invention.

It aperson traveling on a railroad train along a line set with, say, quarter-mile posts, should wish to ascertain the number of miles per hour the train was traveling, it would be necessary to enter into a calculation containing several distinct steps or processes after the time consumed in traveling between such marking posts had been accurately ascer tained. It is to furnish a means of. reaching this result without the labor and liability to error incident to such calculation that the present invention is designed.

The dials illustrated in Figs. I and II of the drawings are planned for use with quartermile posts. In such cases, as will be readily understood, the whole number of seconds in an hour divided by the number of seconds it takes a train to move from one post to the next multiplied by four will indicatethe numberof miles per hour the train is traveling. If as equals the number of seconds it takes a train to proceed a quarter of a mile, the equation will be the number of miles per hour the train is traveling. If the hand 6 makes a complete revolution per minute, the secon d-divisions and the degrees of the circle, being of the same number and of equal length, will exactly coincide. Hence, it the train travels one-quarter of a mile by the time the secondhand reaches fifteen degrees, it is moving sixty miles per hour. The figures are placed at this point. If the train travels one-quarter of a mile by the time the second-hand reaches thirty degrees, it is moving at the rate of thirty miles per hour. The figures 80 are placed at this point. If the train travels a quarter of a mile by the time the second-hand reaches forty-five degrees, it is moving at the rate of twenty miles per hour. The figures 20 are placed at this point. In this way the points on the circle where all the necessary figures should be placed to indicate the speed at which the object is moving may be ascertained.

The dial illustrated in Fig. III is planned for use with mile posts. In this case the whole number of seconds in an hour divided by the number of seconds it takes a train to move from one post to the next will indicate the number of miles per hour the train is traveling. \Vhen m equals the number of seconds it takes a train to proceed a mile, the equation will be =the number of miles per hour the train is traveling. In Fig. III I have chosen to discard the first complete revolution of the chronograplrhand in figuring the dial. When the hand makes one complete revolution while the train is proceeding a mile, the train is traveling at the speed of sixty miles per hour. WVhen the hand, continuing, reaches the fifteen minute point when the mile-post is reached, it has occupied seventyfive seconds in traveling a mile, and the train istravelingforty-eight milesperhour. When, continuing, it reaches the thirty-minute point when the mile-post is reached, it has occupied ninety secondsin traveling a mile, and the train is traveling forty miles per hour. The method employing the dial illustrated in Fig. III is to discard the first revolution of the stophand and to read the figures on the outside of the circle during the second revolution, and the figures on the inside of the circle during the third. These dials are intended to represent some of the modified forms of adaptation of which my invention is capable.

Such dials as those here described may be applied to a stop-watch movement of ordinary construction, in which the second -hand a is started, stopped, and returned to the indexpoint a by pressure on the crown d of the watch successively to perform each of the three movementsand in the order mentioned.

To determine the speed at which a train is moving, it is only necessary to start by pressure on the crown the stop-watch movement when the train passes one post, and to stop it when it reaches the next. The hand 0 will then point to the number on the circumference of the dial indicating the number of miles per hour'the train is traveling.

Having described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent the following:

1. I In a watch, the combination of a timinghand with a'series of figures on the dial thereof, decreasing in the direction of the forward movement of said hand, and adapted to indicate, substantially as described, the speed of a moving object.

2. In a watch, the circle of the dial divided into a series of segments, each segment being longer than the preceding segment of the same series, read in the direction of the forward movement of said hand, combined with a timing-hand, and adapted to indicate the speed of a moving object, substantially as described.

3. In a watch, a timing-hand combined with the circle of the dial divided into a series of segments, each segment being longer than the preceding segment of the same series, read in the direction of the forward revolution of said hand, provided with a series of figures decreasing in the direction of the forward revolution of said hand, said figures being spaced so as to be adapted to indicate, substantially as described, the speed of a moving object.

4. In a watch. the combination of a stophand with a dial, provided with ascries of figures decreasing in the direction of the revolution of said hand, which is started when an object begins and stops when it completes its journey through a given portion of space, said figures being so spaced as to indicate by the position of said hand when stopped the number of units of space through which said object, if moving uniformly, would travel in a given period of time, substantially as described.

. HRI. LAUoHLi.

Witnesses:

L. BOURQUIN, J. GUENoD. 

